New Delhi: Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday told Parliament thatthe government has set a target of ensuring that 30 percent of eligible students should attend college by 2020.

At present, 220 million students go to schools across the country and only 12.4 percent of them are eligible to go to colleges. By the year 2020, the gross involvement ratio has to be increased up to 30 percent, he said while replying to a debate in Lok Sabha on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2009.

The bill, moved by the minister on Monday aiming to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, was later passed by voice vote.

Sibal stressed the need to exponentially expand theuniversity education system and called for a national effort to achieve this goal. "The house should think in terms of next generation," he said.

He said the government has not meted out any discrimination towards any states on allotting 12 central universities, which the government plans to set up across the country.

Asking each state government to identify four or five sites with 500 acres of land to set up the central universities, Sibal said an expert committee would decide the place where the institution could be set up.

The minister, however, opposed the idea of setting up central universities in remote areas where there is no connectivity.

He said the government has already allocated central universities to Karnataka,Orissa, Punjab and Tamil Nadu - states being ruled by non-Congress governments - and the Congress-ruled state of Haryana.

The minister said if the government had political consideration, it would not have allocated central universities to the states being ruled by non-Congress governments.

Sibal, who urged the MPs to set aside political differences, also called for "quality" in the field of university education.

"We need to set up a benchmark (through the central universities)," said theminister, adding that the state universities should also follow suit.

"This is not a quantitative exercise. This is a qualitative exercise," the minister said.

Justifying the government's decision to set up two central universities in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said it was "for the sake of the people and for the sake of peace and unity".

-- IANS